Cessna Citation seen at Bembridge! (24/07/08)
 

Just popped up for a quick bimble to the isle of wight with my dad in G-BPAX and visited Bembridge for a quick snack and a brew and found ourselves watching a lot of traffic as it was very busy thanks to the rare fine weather we had. Then from nowhere a low flying jet came over from the south but we just assumed it was on finals into Southampton as surely somthing like that couldn't land on such a small airfield but we were proved wrong as it turned finals for Bembridge he certanly needed alot of reverse thrust but all in all a very nice landing. The cessna citation jet had come from Madrid as an executive visit to the isle of wight, it was quick to drop off its passengers then head back home (shame it was empty would've been nice to get a free ride to spain :}) but i did have time to get a couple of snaps before it climbed like a home sick angel back to Spain, a pleasant treat thrown in to a great day out:ok:

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That was exactly what the early Citations were designed to do. Simple single pilot jet capable of using short strips and just about quick enough to cover 1000 miles.

Hi TB! Hope you get to change your name soon. Presumably Customs clearance would have been required for this flight?

Would it really be able to carry fuel to Spain and take off from 840m?

Don't ask me why I have the Perf Data for a C550 Bravo to hand at stupid o'clock, but I reckon it could land at about 10 300lbs and depart at about 12 000lbs in a calm wind at 25 degrees. (MLW is 13 500, MTOW 14 800)

I have no idea if that would get you to Spain.

Tim & I watched the refuelling, and it took a good 10 mins (from the bowser), so assume he uplifted a fair bit.

Rotated about 1/2 way along & climbed like a fighter! (although obviously well short of MTOW due to no pax):

It was a real treat to see it at BEM!


RB

There's one goes in to Redhill occasionally; that's 897m and grass!

Redhill ? sure you dont mean Elstree ?

I used to have enought trouble with the bumps in a BE-76 let alone a low sitting Cessna turbine

I was amazed myself but it was definitely Redhill (unless I turned the wrong way when I joined the M25)

Citations into the rough
 

I had the pleasure of being medical crew on two specific Citations in Sub-Saharan Africa hauling patients from some of the most unhappy places on that continent to South Africa.

We regularly did the gravel and grass strip thing with those aircraft, some interesting flights, one that comes to mind immediately was arriving at a 1000m dirt strip in Eastern Malawi at sunset to fetch three patients (two of them were kiddies), spending about an hour stabilising them, and then taking off after sunset with cars strategically placed down the side of the runway. After some coaching from one of the pilots, the taxi was done behind one of the locals riding a motorbike down the taxiway to show us the centre of the 'taxiway'...

Had our hands full with the patients in the back, it would have made for good pics if we had the time to do so...

Huge respect for the 'slowtations'...